BackMint Covid Tracker: Delhi deaths double in a week - much faster than India average
The number of districts with at least one death has crossed 300 now - but ten of them alone account for 70% of India’s 6,075 fatalities
PremiumThe number of reported coronavirus cases in India rose 9 percent over the last two days to 216,919, latest data from the ministry of health and family welfare (MoHFW) showed. This is in line with the rate of change in the previous 48-hour period.
The death toll has reached 6,075, rising 8.5 percent over the last two days, also in line with the growth in the preceding 48 hours. This week so far, the deaths have risen 13 percent, and the number of cases 14 percent.
The death count in India has nearly doubled in the last seventeen days. The number of infections is now twice what it was fifteen days ago, and given the rate of growth in this period, could hit the 250,000-mark in four days.
The continuing rise in cases poses a severe challenge for India’s strained medical capacity and overburdened health system.
Despite a much slower case doubling rate than earlier in the outbreak, new infections and deaths are now rising faster in India than in most other badly-hit countries. Among countries with death counts greater than 4,000, India has recorded the second fastest increase in confirmed cases and the biggest jump in deaths over the past week.
At 2,587 deaths, Maharashtra has the highest toll in the country so far due to covid-19, followed by Gujarat (1,122), Delhi (606), Madhya Pradesh (371), and West Bengal (345). These five states have recorded 83 percent of all covid-related deaths in India so far. Deaths have surged the most in Delhi, Bihar, and Tamil Nadu in the last seven days.
The case fatality rates vary widely. At 6.2 percent, Gujarat has the worst fatality rate, followed by West Bengal, where 5.3 percent of those who tested positive for coronavirus have died. Madhya Pradesh is next with 4.3 percent. India’s case fatality rate is now 2.8 percent. Among all states that have had deaths, the case fatality rates are the lowest in Assam (0.2%), Chhattisgarh (0.3%), and Odisha (0.3%).
It is worth noting that data quality on cases and deaths vary across countries and regions because of factors such as differences in testing standards, and in protocols being followed for recording covid-related deaths.
Maharashtra has 39,944 patients still under treatment, the most in the country, followed by Delhi with 13,497 and Tamil Nadu with 11,348 active cases. Gujarat is fourth on the list with 4,766 active cases and West Bengal fifth with 3,583 cases. Out of the 106,737 active cases in India as of Thursday morning, the top five states together have 69 percent and the top ten states account for 81 percent. Active cases exclude deaths and recoveries from the list of confirmed cases. As many as 104,107 patients have now been discharged in India.
Among the ten states with most active cases, Delhi, Karnataka and West Bengal have seen the highest percentage spike over the past seven days.
Among districts, Mumbai, Chennai, Thane, Ahmedabad, and Pune have seen the biggest jump in confirmed cases in the last two days. These five districts account for 44 percent of the new cases over this period, data compiled by howindialives.com last evening shows. Other districts that have seen a sharp spike over the past two days are Gurugram in Haryana, Kolkata in West Bengal, and Udupi in Karnataka.
So far, 302 districts have had deaths in the country. Mumbai (1,417 deaths) has reported the most deaths among all districts, followed by Ahmedabad (910) in Gujarat, Pune (364) and Thane (257) in Maharashtra, and Kolkata (229) in West Bengal. These five districts now account for 59 percent of deaths in the country.
Chennai (161) in Tamil Nadu, Indore (140) in Madhya Pradesh, Jaipur (100) in Rajasthan, Solapur (85), and Aurangabad (85) in Maharashtra are the other districts with the highest tolls. The top ten districts account for 70 percent of all the deaths nationally. District-wise data for Delhi are unavailable and hence not part of this list.
The number of coronavirus infections is likely to keep increasing in the coming days, as India’s testing numbers continue to grow. According to the Indian Council for Medical Research, over 42.43 lakh samples have been tested so far, including 1.39 lakh in the past 24 hours.
Meanwhile, the global coronavirus case count has crossed 6.4 million, with over 385,000 deaths, and more than 2.8 million recoveries.
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